Groovy Here, Reporting In as Expected...

It's been a very long and very wonderful week full of sleep deprivation, junk food, good conversation, and good old fashioned FUN.

And I'm pooped!

First we had the great privilege of having Dorothy Erickson stay the night at our home last Saturday. Dorothy is a retired school teacher who has been serving as a missionary to the Fulani people of Central African Republic and Cameroon for the past ten years. Now she has reached the "Mandatory Missionary Retirement Age" and they have sent her back to the States. Since April she has spent every weekend visiting churches and sharing with them the desperate need for more missionaries to go to the field to help equip national believers.

She is roughly the same age as our folks, but seems much younger because she full of such zeal and energy. She is so pleasant to talk with and we love her dearly! We're keeping the guest room ready for her any time she happens to wander up to Maine. In fact the girlies, who are usually quite shy with strangers (she was here 5 years ago, but they don't remember her), were excited to meet her and interacted with her from the first moment. She's one special lady!

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On Sunday we went to church, then rushed home to don our farm clothes and zipped over to the Fair. Girly-Girl and Silly-Head dressed their goats as hula dancers for the parade. Here they are with their goats and their two good farm friends.


After the parade they watched a few of the older kids do demonstration speeches. Then they had to wash and polish and brush their goats. Girly-Girl took extra time and really paid attention to details this time. Emma had indeed gained weight over the course of the week and was looking MUCH better than she did in her last show.

Here's Girly-Girl and Emma with some of their fellow 4-H ers. The other black LaMancha is Dora, Emma's twin. The girls are all sweeties and they showed their unity by all wearing ponytails into the ring. They were so cute!


Well, all the hard work really paid off. There was a much larger field of competitiors and Girly-Girl placed THIRD in a combo of showmanship and fitting against other 7-8 year olds. Then she got to compete again against all the other 1st year 4-H ers. They ranged in age from 7 to 18 and Girly-Girl placed FIRST. Wa-HOO!!!!!! Technically, she got second place, but the girl who took first place wasn't actually a 1st year shower - her mom just got confused when she registered her. But we're OK with it and I am SO pleased at how hard Girly-Girl worked.



We returned from the Fair with my dear friend Notcon4med, her two daughters, and the ever present (and ever pleasant and giggly) Maggiedoodlebugs in tow. NC4 and family came up to Maine from South Carolina to do some missions work in Portland and Lewiston for a week. Then Papa NC4 flew home with their team (22 total teens and adults) while my buddy and her girls stayed behind.

Here's NC4 and her fam:


Here are her girls and MDB - the inseparable ones!




Notcon4med has a better grasp on being succint, so I'll share with you her summary of our incredible week together. I've edited it slightly for my own nefarious purposes (or something like that):

So, I'm finally getting around to posting something here in Maine. I'm sitting at the bar in Groovy's kitchen...trying to convince her she needs an ipod. She's not with me...maybe when her girlies are older, and don't need to talk to her every few minutes...
...This week has included swimming, kayaking, catching frogs, feeding goats and trout, and stacking wood at the Maggiedoodlebugs' house, silly times playing board games and gabbing around the kitchen bar at the Groovy's, high tea with the ladies (and Pastor Bill, the tea party crasher) at FEFC, delicious food at the Freedom Cafe, ice cream and mini-golf at Giffords, lots of Hillman's donuts, talking into the wee hours with Jenn with 2 Ns (that was just me) and many other fun things...

Here's Girly-Girl, Silly-Head and MDB's little sister, Peanut, at the tea.



One thing she failed to mention was the much acclaimed and anticipated fry pan toss. Sadly, it was rather anti-climactic. We all showed up at the fair grounds and they were going to make us pay $6 a head just to get in for a 1/2 hour contest. Mulletman and the girls and our beloved guests (and hopeful cheerleaders) saved their $50 and all left me there so they could take the girls to a park/playground; I went on in by myself. The contest itself was fun and some unexpected friends from church were there, so they cheered for me.

The pan weighed about 300 9 pounds, which, I can safely say, is MORE than one I practiced with at home. My age class was the largest with about a dozen women. My throws were respectable at 33 and 35 feet, but I got beat out by a discus thrower, a former softball pitcher, and a sweet lady who looked like she couldn't carry a dinner plate. I was solidly in the middle of the pack.

I'll have to work up to over 40 feet to be competitive if I do this again!

This is the best pic I could get since I was alone and had to ask a stranger to please photograph me:


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So, my bestest bud and all the girls left early this morning for their respective homes. It's REALLY quiet around here now...I've been putzing around doing housework, but I feel so lonely. I miss them!!!

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And now....

HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY TO FUNSOCKSGIRL AND THE J-MAN!!!!!